Cathy Makin

I am studying in Oz at the moment and have a friend who has just completed the same course as me, Diploma of Community Welfare Work, she has just found out that they have refused her PR visa! The reason they are giving is that the course does not meet the 2 year rule, even though we have been studying for 2 years? We have completed the cert 3 & 4 the first year and the Diploma is 1 year on top of that. I cannot understand this, but anyway she has to appeal now, which is costing her $1400 and she could be waiting up to 7 months for a decision! If they do not overturn their decision, she has no option but to go back to the UK.

Just like me she has made a life for herself out here with kids and was hoping to purchase a house as she has a job and was hoping things were about to get easier...... Has anybody out there had any similar experiences??

Obviously I am very concerned as I too have a family, I am going to continue with my studies at present and just hope for the best........

Jumpy

As long as the courses are CRICOS registered to cover 92 weeks of study,that will be enough to be considered a 2 yr course.The courses must be closely to the the welfare occupation. This is how I read the 2 yr study rule anyway .

stumpysean

oh my god, how on earth can that happen?
This is what worries me. I've gone round and round in circles about doing the student visa and how risky it is. There just seems to be the slightest thing needs to go wrong and you're on a plane home again. Surely immi know the course is registered for 2 years???? it doesn't make sense???

Where are you studying, is it definately a 2 yr 92 week course?

Carlton Cold's

oh my god, very worrying. Im also studying a patisserie diploma in melbourne city, started the course in Feb. The course is on cricos and is a 2-yr diploma, but dont really understand how the 92 wks is calculated, as haven't seen this criteria before.

My course started 1st Feb 08 and finished beginning of Dec 09, which is a 2-yr course, but obviously there are college shut-down weeks in this period. We thought it was that you must gain a 2-yr australian qualification, plus the 900 hrs work experience before applying for PR. If the rules mean you must complete 92 actual wks at college, then this is something like 2yrs and 7/8months if you take into account the holidays. Although during these weeks we seem to spend a lot of the time still doing actual assignments. Hopefully someone will qualify, i.e. a migration agent, as Im sure there's hundreds of us on a student visa and this will effect us all.

Good luck to everyone..
Sarah & Russ

Carlton Cold's

Guys, just checked the cricos website and if you look up your college and then find the actual course you are studying it tells you how many wks the duration of the course is. In our case, its 98wks.

Cathy, have a look on the cricos site and it will tell you how many wks the course states. Let us all know what is says, or give me the details and I'll check it for you.. Good luck

sarah & russ

stumpysean

Hi, just checked the cricos website. It is course code 057515B? because this is the course i was going to do. Yes this is registered as being 94 weeks!

So i can't understand what the problem is with your friends application? Have any other applications come back with a problem?

Keep us informed please! I don't think i'm going down this route now

Cathy Makin

Hi there, thanks for your replies, I have looked myself on the Cricos website and it does say 52 weeks for the ETI course, which is the one I have done. I have spoken to various people, inlcuding international staff, head of diploma and my friend and it is def a 2 year course as you have to do the cert 3 & 4 before you can do the diploma which is 52 weeks and then the diploma is the same, the Cambridge one states its 104 weeks and ETI should be the same. I have the college looking into it, my friend had found a lawyer who may be able to help with the appeal process, she is also due to see an advertising person at ETI to see if the duration can be changed on the Cricos website to read 104 weeks. The college have said they know of hundreds of students who have achieved PR after their studies there, so they are unconcerned.

Apparently PR visas for students are now being processed at Brisbane where it has always been Adelaide before, this was one of the reasons my friend was given when she rang immi for help?? Not sure what that means, I am sorry to freak people out, but I think it is best to share news like this, even to help people in the future to be cautious when submitting an application, to ensure all the info is correct first, as apparently the international office issue a letter to say that our course is a 2yr full time course, my friend was not aware of this so never got one, so make sure that you receive a letter from your institutions when you leave as I have spoken to everyone now on my course and no-one was aware they needed this letter, just the certificate and table of results. I will keep you posted as I hear from my friend.

1Ben

Very interesting Thread.It just shows how easily things can go wrong.
The student visa seems to be a very risky and confusing way to get to Oz.
So many rules and the cost factor for some of these courses is unreal.
You can do some of these courses for a couple of hundred quid in the UK.
Goodluck to your friend regarding PR,hope it all sorts it self out.

stumpysean

Yes you can indeed, but one major difference!...........you would still need several years experience on top of the qualification to go with it before you could apply to get into OZ!!! that's why we're all looking at the student visa route

Traykolaj

Does anyone know if its 92 weeks including holidays before applying for pr??

Carlton Cold's

hiya, as far we understand yes it does and cricos website for the chosen course should indicate this. I guess if you work it out, its not actually a 92 wk course over the 2-yrs, as otherwise you wouldnt get hardly any holiday, but I believe the course work/study/assignments etc equate to a 92 wk course. I hope this helps and good luck to you.

Russ & Sarah (just finished year 1, yeppeee!!!!)

pumpkin blossom

Yep, my course states it is run for 104 weeks, we certainly are not in the classroom for that many weeks! Infact today was our last day and now we are on holidays until Feb, yay.

Seba

Has anyone heard anything about the changes to the issuing of visas that are going to be impelemented?

mandyp

Hi, no haven't heard anything about any changes recently. What have you hear?

Cheers
Mandy

pumpkin blossom

No changes heared of on my course either. So.... what have you heared?